ABSTRACT
The passage is identical in The New Feminist Criticism.2 These sentences conclude a paragraph that begins by discussing the theoretical influence of lesbian separatism on literary criticism. Although Zimmerman feels that separatism has been an invigorating and empowering influence, she believes that (in 1981) lesbian criticism needs
"diversity." Such diversity would entail the use of "'male' systems of thought," a move from separatism to "integration." She imagines resistance to her suggestion, in that lesbians are more likely than heterosexual women to mistrust anything associated with men. Lesbians and male thought may be "incompatible," but Zimmerman advocates a trial association in order to "enrich" lesbian thought. According to lesbian theorists such as Adrienne Rich, throughout history, women who prefer women have been forced to associate with men for economic reasons.3 Zimmerman nominates Marxism, structuralism, semiotics, and psychoanalysis as likely candidates for such integration, although she implies that the last is probably the least acceptable of the bunch (alluding to its long connection with psychotherapeutic attempts to cure lesbians of their abnormality).
